


when mary watson met mary (maritess) morstan

by handyhunter



Category: Elementary (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-09
Updated: 2013-12-09
Packaged: 2018-01-04 02:51:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1075664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/handyhunter/pseuds/handyhunter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>mary watson meets an old friend of joan's</p>
            </blockquote>





	when mary watson met mary (maritess) morstan

Mary Watson eyed the wilted bundles of gai lan dubiously. This was the problem of getting to the market late: All the best produce was already gone. She picked up more garlic, because one can never have enough garlic, and revised her dinner plans, such as they were. It wasn’t that she disliked cooking or even that she was bad at it; it just seemed like a lot of work some days, particularly when her husband was out of town.

Someone bumped into her as she reached for an onion.

“Oh! Excuse me-- Mary?” the woman said.

Mary turned around and found herself looking at a very familiar face. “Mary Teresa Morstan!” They exchanged quick kisses on each other’s cheeks. “You didn’t come to my dinner party last month,” Mary half-scolded. 

“I’ve just been so busy...” said Maritess, running a hand through her short black hair. “And, you know, Tita Annie’s in trouble again.”

Mary took in Maritess’s lacklustre expression and empty shopping basket. She put her onion and garlic back. “Why don’t we talk over dinner? Do you feel like yum cha? I know a place nearby.”  
It was not until they had finished an entire pot of tea that they moved on from inconsequential chatter to the problems of Annie Yambao. She was only an acquaintance of Mary’s, but quite close to Maritess’s family. 

Maritess’s voice dropped and she glanced around. “I think she’s being blackmailed.”

“About what?” Mary whispered back. As far as she knew, Annie was about as above-board as they came, a veritable pillar of the community, if you excluded sneaking the odd mango or two past customs, but that was years and years ago and not entirely done on purpose. And there was that one incident a few years back, when she had some money problems with her salon, but she’d sold her business and Mary assumed that solved the problem.

“I don’t know. I found a note in her house about ‘paying up or else’ and when I asked her about it, she said everything was fine and pushed me out the door.” Maritess put her chopsticks down and looked at Mary expectantly.

“That’s not a very imaginative blackmailer.” 

Maritess sighed and poured more tea for the both of them. “I know. I don’t think I know enough to go to the police either.”

Mary supposed she ought to try to help. She’d asked the girl to spill her troubles, after all -- though she hadn’t been expecting anything like blackmail to be the problem -- and she’d always liked Maritess and often wondered if Ty’s friendship with his ex-wife was why he and Joan never worked out. “I think you should call my daughter.”

“Joan?”

“Yes, I still only have the one daughter.” Until Oren finally married Gabrielle, but they both had agreed on a very long engagement -- they hadn’t even started on any wedding plans yet! -- and Mary promised not to be too pushy. 

Maritess smiled wryly. “I only meant, what experience does Joan have with blackmailers?”

“Oh, you’d be surprised.” Mary sipped her tea. “You know she...is no longer a doctor.” Maritess nodded. Mary knew she’d been one of the friends Joan cut out from her life. Maybe they had not been the closest of friends, but...well, Joan was happy again now and could stand to reconnect with some old friends. “Joan is a consultant for the police.”

“That’s quite a career change. You really think she can help?”

Mary nodded briskly. “Her work partner has a tremendous amount of experience as a detective and Joan has applied herself wholeheartedly to this new venture.” 

“I suppose it can’t hurt to give her a call. Will you send me her new phone number? I don’t think the one I have still works.”

Mary pulled out her phone and brought up Joan’s contact information. “I’ll do you one better and call her right now.” 

Joan answered on the third ring, slightly breathless. “Hello?”

“Joan, are you all right?”

“...just...practicing...single stick,” she huffed.

“Hmm,” said Mary, wondering at her having a daughter who apparently thrived on learning how to fight. “You’ll never guess who I ran into. Maritess Morstan! You remember her, of course. She is in need of a consulting detective.”

“Maritess? Really?” Joan paused. “I’m really doing fine, Mom. You don’t have to--”

“No, it’s not like the other time,” said Mary. “This is a real case. It’s about her auntie. Why don’t I send her over to the brownstone tomorrow?”

“Uh, sure. We just wrapped up a case, so I have time.”

“Great! We’ll see you at ten.” Mary covered the phone and said to Maritess under her breath, “Joan is not a morning person. Any earlier and she’ll be quite grumpy.”

“I thought I was just meeting Maritess? ...Mom?”

“I would hate for her to get lost. You know how all the houses look the same.” Mary said goodbye to her daughter -- whom she had not seen in a few weeks -- and smiled reassuringly at Maritess. “You’re in good hands.”


End file.
